Cryogenic air separation systems are known in the art for separating gas mixtures into heavy components and light components, typically oxygen and nitrogen, respectively. Generally, the separation process takes place in plants that cool incoming mixed gas streams through heat exchange with other streams (either directly or indirectly) before separating the different components of the mixed gas through mass transfer methods such as distillation and/or reflux condensation (dephlegmation). Once separated to achieve desired purities, the different component streams are warmed back to ambient temperature. Typically, the different warming, cooling, and separating steps take place in separate pieces of equipment, which, along with the installation and piping, adds to the manufacturing costs for the plant.
Various air separation systems have been introduced that combine some of the separate heat transfer components in order to provide an integrated device that may perform a variety of functions. In particular, systems have been proposed that partially combine different heat exchangers for warming or cooling fluid streams and separation devices for separating out heavy and light components in the streams into a single heat exchange core in order to reduce the number of pieces of equipment needed in an air separation plant. This may reduce the overall cost of the plant.